Canvas Inbox Refactor Update_ 11/22/2022 & 12/8/2022

[JDPearson]

Good afternoon, I am pleased to announce that the Observers functionality is now available in the Inbox Refactor in Beta. The added functionality is similar to the behavior the custom script provided for Include Observers, that many of you were using. This functionality will also be available in the Inbox refactor as it moves to Production in the December 17th release. Please note: due to the discovery of some critical bugs, the release to Production has been pushed out to 1/21/2023.

While we have been able to make this accommodation this time, so as to not set unrealistic expectations for the future, it is important to note that there is risk associated with using custom coding and that risk is assumed by/the responsibility of the end user. Custom code may be negatively impacted by product updates we may make, at any time. Additionally and unfortunately, we may not always be able to offer a positive resolution in support of custom coding or have the ability to match functionality that might be available in a different Canvas application for varied reasons, as we have been able to do with this update.

As always, thank you for your interest in Canvas, in Inbox, your dedication to your students and for being a valued member of our Community. If at any time you would like to share your experience, provide feedback or discuss needed functionality, click this link to sign up for time to have a brief chat with me and a couple of team members.

[audra_agnelly]

Thank you @JDPearson I just saw the inbox item was added to the December release notes. Very excited to have the add observers functionality!!!

As I was poking around in Beta, I found one change in the Inbox UI to be a little confusing. In the current Inbox, the search bar is off to the right and when you hover over that field there is help text indicating that this is a search tool:

In Beta, the search bar has been moved and it is now prepopulated with the text "Insert or Select Names". When I first opened the Inbox in Beta, my initial impression was that this was new functionality where I could begin the composition of a new message by entering a student or course name into that field. I think that having the compose button directly to the right of the search field also lent to my impression that "insert or select names" was a way to compose a new message. Most websites have search fields in the upper right corner of the page, so relocating this more to the center also makes it's purpose less intuitive for users. I think prepopulating the field with text like "Search for Recipients", "filter messages", or some other similar phrasing would help clarify the purpose of the search bar.

And, finally, I don' know if this is a bug or beta slowness, but the Courses and Students options under the search bar do not populate with anything when I click on them. I do see all my courses in the search bar address book in the current Inbox.

[JDPearson]

@audra_agnelly I have asked the Engineering Team to take a look at this and will follow-up. Thank you.

[Mikee]

This seems extraordinarily slow - having a load dialog visible for a full minute with no responses is not a great experience to someone clicking into the search field. 😞

Then having the same result to entering a space in the field. This looks near-unusable at scale.

How do I tell apart users who happen to have the same first and last names, or the same person who may have differentiated staff and student accounts?


Please tell me you're not attempting to populate the entire user list into the drop-down....

[Mikee]

Sorry to bombard you with feedback here, but you don't seem available at all this moth (all seven days of it!) or next at all - and the only time you have is not really that friendly for us in the antipodes... While I usually start my work day pretty early, this is keen even for me:

[JDPearson]

@audra_agnelly and @Mikee thank you both for your feedback.

The search bar item Audra noted is a bug, as is the slowness that you both noted and we have fixes in process to correct both. We are not trying to load all the users as was Mikee's question, the slowness is due to the bug. Regarding users with the same name, the information will be displayed as per the Legacy inbox and that has not been an issue previously. If we need to look at that in the future we can.

@Mikee it is always a challenge to accommodate all of the time zones, as you can imagine. I can certainly set up a one off session with you to better accommodate your schedule, please feel free to email me at jewel.pearson@instructure.com to coordinate.

Thanks!

[Mikee]

Thanks @JDPearson 🙂

I think a chat sometime would be excellent, I'll hit up our CSM.

[dbrace]

Thank you for this update, @JDPearson.

Is the Inbox Refactor update supposed to continue to use a course's nickname (as documented at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-view-my-favorite-courses-in-the-Card-View-... for students and https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-view-my-favorite-courses-in-the-Card-Vi... for instructors) when using the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner to find a course or when composing a message?

[dbrace]

Also, @JDPearson, when searching for a course from the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner or while composing a message, are we supposed to be able to search using text/letters from anywhere in a course name or only text/letters from the beginning of a course name?

There seems to be a difference for search results from the upper-left corner compared to from in the middle (next to the address book icon) because the search box in the middle supports searching for text/letters anywhere in a course name; although, nicknames do not appear there either but that is not different than what is currently in production (which has a search box in the upper-right corner).

[JDPearson]

Hello @dbrace,

Regarding the course's nickname, yes it should continue to be used. That's a miss on our part, we'll need to work on a fix for that.

Regarding the second item, it should support searching for text/letters from anywhere in the course name and currently is not. This is a bug and we'll also put in a fix for that.

Thanks much for calling these items out.

[dbrace]

You are welcome, @JDPearson, and thank you for your response.

To summarize: As of right now, in beta and production, for the Canvas Inbox, the ...

1. use of the course name or course nickname (if created)
2. search functionality in all three locations
   1. when searching from the upper-left
   2. when searching from the middle (in beta) or upper-right (in production)
   3. while composing a message

... are definitely not a consistent/expected experience and I look forward to both concerns being addressed.

When fixed, do you know if these will be fixed before they are released to production on 2022-12-17 or in a later deploy?  My guess would be in a later deploy but I do not want to make any assumptions.

Thank you again, @JDPearson.

[JDPearson]

@dbrace Thanks for the summary. We have tickets in for both items and are working on fixes for them. We did decide earlier today that these items need to be fixed before releasing to production and with that the current plan is to delay the release to production to 1/21/2023. The release notes are being updated to reflect this and I will update my post above.

Thanks again for your assistance and review feedback.